Draw Art Fair, The First Dedicated Modern and Contemporary Drawing Fair in UK to Launch in London

Draw Art Fair, launching in London from 15-19 May 2019, will be the first fair in the UK dedicated to modern and contemporary drawing in all its forms.

Up to sixty galleries and exhibitors will fill three floors of the Saatchi Gallery in London, where they will present curated solo and group exhibitions of drawings in a museum-style context. Designed to demonstrate the scope and range of the medium, the fair will showcase modern masters alongside recent works from the 21st century.

Founder and director of Draw Art Fair London, Laurent Boudier, says: “Draw Art Fair London will offer a platform to galleries and exhibitors from around the world to show the importance of international modern and contemporary drawing. Drawing from this period is powerful, expressing itself both through line and the various textures of different techniques – from pencil to watercolour, from stump to digital line.”

The fair’s Strategic Director, Jill Silverman van Coenegrachts, emphasises the importance of the fair in celebrating drawing as the heart of artistic practice. “Draw Art Fair London will enable exhibitors to recreate the immediacy and discovery of an artist’s studio, taking the viewer behind the scenes to witness the artist’s first gesture, to experience this art form that comes with speed and purpose directly from the artist’s hand.”

Draw Art Fair London’s Advisory Committee will include: Brett Littman, head of the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York; Jenni Lomax, former director of the Camden Arts Centre, London; Roger Malbert, Head of Hayward Touring, Hayward Gallery, London; and Frédéric Paul, Curator, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Raimund Stecker, Vice President of the Hochschule der bildenden Künste Essen and former Director of the Arp Museum, Remagen.

Creative Direction of the fair will be provided by Mathilde Bretillot and Miska Miller-Lovegrove, who will bring their combined architectural and design skills to create a unique environment within the Saatchi Gallery that will provide the best experience for exhibitors and visitors.

For further press information, please contact Sophie Money, [email protected]

+ 44 (0) 771 800 2453

Draw Art Fair London

81 Rivington Street, London EC2A 3AY

NOTES TO EDITORS:

DRAW ART FAIR LONDON TEAM

Laurent Boudier, Founder and Director

In 2006 Laurent Boudier founded Le Salon du Dessin Contemporain, DRAWING NOW in Paris, where he remained as artistic director until 2009. Between 2010–2016 he was artistic director of The Canson Foundation, where he established the international drawing award, Le Prix Canson, which recognises the achievements of artists who work with paper as their principal medium. Each year, the winner, selected by a distinguished panel of museum directors and curators, is offered an exhibition in a museum or art centre, such as, Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the Miró Foundation, Barcelona, or the Drawing Center, New York. Boudier has published numerous monographs and worked as an art critic for the French and international press, including French, Italian, German and US editions of Vogue; Libération; La Revue des Deux Mondes; Le Journal des Arts; Le Figaro Madame; and has been the art critic for Télérama (group Le Monde) since 1985.

Jill Silverman van Coenegrachts, Strategic Director

Jill Silverman van Coenegrachts has had a thirty-year career in the international art world in New York, London and Paris, as a partner at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (2005-2012), and as the Managing Director of Lisson Gallery, London (1995-2005). In New York, she was Director of the John Gibson Gallery (1979-1989), and of Barbara Mathes (1990-91). In 2004 she was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French government for her contributions to contemporary art as a member of the Committee of FIAC, a position she held for 10 years. Five years ago, Silverman van Coenegrachts established an office jsvcPROJECTS/london to work on strategic projects and planning with artists, collections, museums and foundations as well as developing public commissions.

Mathilde Bretillot and Miśka Miller-Lovegrove, Creative Direction

Mathilde Bretillot is Designer and Professor at École Camondo in Paris having previously been Dean of Design at ESAD de Reims 1994 to 2006. Bretillot has championed a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach to design and develops innovative international design projects through Bretillot Creations. Between 2005 and 2009, she was a member of La Mission de Metiers d’Art for Innovation for the French Ministry of Culture. In 2017, she was part of the Academie des Savoir Faire, Fondation de’entreprise Hermès.

Miśka Miller-Lovegrove is a London-based architect working internationally for the past thirty years, as a partner of Lovegrove Studio, one of the world’s leading architectural and design firms. Projects include: Frank Lloyd Wright Exhibition at the Design Museum in London, interiors for Toyo Ito’s Mediatech in Sendai, Japan, exhibition design for Renault Twin’Z launch at the Milan Triennale. Miller-Lovegrove is co-founder of Creative Project Foundation that aims to promote creative design across borders. In 2016, she co-designed the exhibition “Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick” with Mathilde Bretillot at Somerset House together (2018).